Morning journal and courier., 1887-08-27

in and asked the attention of those pres
ent. After stating that she had been
served with the injunction she added in
her quiet, magnetic way:
Now, my friends, you are free to seek
homes elsewhere, but you also perfect
Iy welcome to stay here in Cottage Home
and be my honored guests as long as you
please. I shall not expect or consent to re>
ceive a cent for it, as I am a law~abidins
woman You could have heard the hand
clapping clear down on the lake shore If
you had been down there. 1t was terrific"
Referring to this incident, I said to Mrs.
Dawson:
''Of course they made it up to you in
some way"
''No, indeed" she replied indignantly. 'I
wouldn't let any of them even make me
about twenty-five dollars a day for eight
days, but I triumphed."
"About how many remained with you2"
"About forty-fve."
(As the regular price for board and lodg-
ing is about one dollar day, I couldn't help
inferring that Mrs. Dawson clears upwards
of thirty dollars a day when her house is
fully
'sI should think it would require all the
time of good, active bookkeepef, con-
tinued, ito take care of such large busi-
ness"
"Indeed it does," was the reply, 'and
have lady now who does nothing else but
keep track of matters for the benefit of the
assembly people"
f'When do the assembly people consult
your books.'
Casually every day-sometimes every other
day. You will see a couple of men sneaking
down in the morning if you down this
way. We won't let them come into the
house, SO we hang the book up on the veran-
da Just outside, where they can consult it,"
of a iTna yyha ha "
put a bo2kkeeper into two or three of the
cottages-yours among the number-and
kept their own aecounts2"
Eyes, and made us board the man free!
An insult? Of course it was, but we loved
Chautauqua too much to throw off the yoke.
have always kept my books just as honest
ly as it is possible to keep books when You
can't afford to hire special expert. I don't
deny that I may have left out some of the
transients by oversight now and then, but
that can't be helped when one is doing such
a big volume of business, attending to the
buying. &c., &c. I should like to see Presi-
dent Miller run my cottage for one week, and
see how straight he would keep the accounts.
I can only say that I have been scrupulously
careful The assembly, on the other hand.
has distinguished itself by trying to set traps
for me and other widows on the grounds.
This has been done again and again, and we
have the affdavits to prove it."
"When I was under the ban men would be
sent here for meals. would give them a
good dinner or supper as the case might be,
and urge them to fill up and come again. Of
course my regular boarders saw that they
were spies and we had great deal of fun
out of it, unpleasant as it all was. I never
wo1ld touch their money and served them
with extravagant politeness. Then too we
have great many affidayits proving the un-
savory methods used by the management in
intimidating women who hold the old camp
meeting leases to induce them to surrender
them and take new leases from the assoeia-
ton. When one cottager sells to another it
is customary for him to transfer to the asso-
citation and then the association leases it TO
the new party. This unnecessary formality
has been part of the same scheme. My at
torney, Mr.. Wade, bought direct from a cot
tage-owner having one of the original leases,
as he had perfect right to do. and for that
offense he was illegally refused voice in the
eottage-owners' meeting. So were a good
many others who have enjoyed the right to
vote for many seasons past.
''On what ground is a charge of ten per
cent askedf'
''It is claimed that it is levied to meet the
expense of the garbage wagon and the gene
raj care of the grounds. Then we naturally
inquire why shouldn't all the cottagers and
tenters here be assessed, whether they keep
NJ
these advantages. And especially why
shouldn't that great hotel pay ten per cent. r.
From Mrs. Dawson's I proceeded to the
cosy summer home of President Miller on
"the Park" Like most of the luxurious
cottages on the grounds at that hour, when
the evening lecture was in progress, l found
both the cottage and its pretty canvas annex
wide open, with the lamps turned down and
no one near by to guard them. I had re-
formed or might have driven dray up to
the front door and carted away every last
thing in the house without being discovered.
I made myself comfortable on the veranda,
and in half an hour the ever-placid, smiling
president of the association returned. What
ever faults Mr.. Miller may be accused of,
think it should be set down to his credit that
he never gets so inflated that he isn't ready to
impart information to the least as well as the
greatest. and impart it cordially. And that,
from a reporters standpoint, is a virtue
which alone ought almost to give man a
free pass to heaven.
''It is not at all remarkable that this trou-
BILE should have come about he said. cit
is remarkable rather that we should have
managed so vast an enterprise so long as we
have without more friction. In the present
case the dissatisfaction is confined to a few
ringleaders who even before they openly re-
beIled were won't to deceive US in their re-
ports and evade the laws. Of course we
know who the tricky ones are and have all
the evidence that could be desired to show
them up. But we do not want to do So It
would be distasteful to us to have to seem to
persecute anyone in that way. We still hope
that the guilty ones will not compel us to
take this step. We hope SO for their sakes -
Chow do you defend the ten per cent. tax?' i
''We hold that those who take boarders
and dodgers here merchandising. We
charge others for doing that and why should
the cottagers be exempt. What difference
does it make whether a man sells meat or
handles books, or takes boarders to earn a
living here? He is taking advantage of the
crowd which We bring here"
And what do you say when it is urged
that the tax is too greats"
:t,Ve know better We know that some
of the cottages do an exceedingly profitable
business, and there's where the pinch comes
in. We are grieved to confess that there are
some people here who are trying to get veal
thy off from Chautauqua.n
''But they claim that they only get from a
quarter to a half as much as the hotel does
per customer, that they set fully good a
table, and that the botel is exempt from the
ten per cent. assessment; and DR.. Vincent
himself told me two years ago that the hotel
had never yet paid expenses"
"Well, the hotel has paid during the past
two years; and then the hotel is on a differ
ent basis. There are high salaries connected
with it, fine halls, parlors, &c. cottage,
on tne obner nanQ, lS ready TO sGarb lnUo Jus
mess as soon as it has a table, two chairs and
a cot bed"
'sWhat do you think will be the outcome
of the litigation against the cottagers who
were enjoined?"
"We have consulted the best attorneys in
this part of the country, and have every rea-
son to believe that our authority will be sus-
tanned. If we canno5 have that much con-
troll here we can never hope to succeed. Of
the self sacrifice and personal losses and do
nations and gratuitous expenditures of time
which have contributed to the making of
Chautauqua the critical public and these re-
bellious cottagers are apt to lose sight"
'How about the remarks attributed to you
and DR.. Vincent about not preparing another
programme, moving the assembly grounds to
another part of the lake, See
''Those remarks are exaggerated"
From Chautauqua 1 proceeded to James
town to interview ttorney Wade, of whom